Sunday, April 18, 2010

So about 3 weeks ago I introduced Mason to eating using a real bowl. I went to the Salvation Army and found a little bowl for .30 cents. I put it in Masons drawer where I keep his other plastic bowls. I showed him to get it out, get a yogurt and spoon and take it to the table. I have to pick him to but him in his chair, ounce we move back home I plan on getting him his own table and chair to help him out more. After that day every time he went to get a yogurt he would always go for this bowl. It was always at the bottom of the plastic bowls and he would move all the plastic ones to the side till he found the real one. It was so cute and it impressed me to see that he cared. Well last week I went to a yard sale with my mom and I found six bowls for .50 cents. So far he has been really good about using them and we have not lost any yet.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

We have been having a pretty good week I am scared I am going to jinx it. I told yall a few post back about the book I was reading and I think it has really helped me look at how I react towards Mason and choosing my battles. I wonder though if we are having good days because of how I am starting to view things or Mason is just having good days and we are about to hit a bump anytime now. Either way I am grateful we have had some wonderful times.

Being a new mom one thing that I have struggled with a lot is choosing the way I want to discipline Mason and handle those negative behaviors. The one thing I keep bumping into is to spank or not to spank. I feel like people look at you weird for choosing to do either one. So what is a new mom to do? Which way do you go? This is a struggle even between my husband and I because we where raised different.

***Side note this is just my personal opinion from my personal upbringing everyone does things different. This is what works for us.

What I like about this book is that it gives alternatives to spanking. This is important to me because I dont want spanking to be a norm in my house. The reason I say its important is because I know that can have consequences as the child grows up. Why do I say I know you ask?I grew up in a home where spanking was the main source of discipline. I did not like it and yes I followed the rules but not because of respect but of fear of what would happen if I did not. Even to this day as a adult when I commit a mistake it terrifies me to tell my parents. I know they wont spank me but I always think "OMG what will they say" I dont want my son to feel that way. My parents always spanked out of anger and I remember my mom saying "When I hit you ounce I just dont feel it and end up hitting you 5x" I understand you should not hit out of anger but it scared me that if a allow myself to use spanking as my main source that it will eventually lead to hitting out of anger and then to hitting with out feeling how many times I hit my child. Just the thought scares me. My upbringing is the main reason I choose not to use this method.

I dont know if Mason is a easy kid or what but the alternatives have worked for us. One of the things that I do with Mason is times out. I think I started using this when he was about one and now at 23 months if I tell him he needs to go sit down he understands. I have not done a "you have to sit there for this amount of time" I walk him to where he needs to sit (a carpet) he complains but I stay calm and tell him "you need to sit here because ..." I guess from just doing AP(attached parenting) I know my child but if he leaves his carpet still crying I walk him back to his carpet and say "You need to sit here and calm down ok" if he stands up with out crying and comes to me and says "mami mami" and hugs me I tell him "we dont hit or throw" whatever was the reason he had to sit down. This is usually how time outs work for us and I guess because I introduced it early I can do this when we go to the store but usually I sit with him.

Im not going to lie sometimes he pushes my buttons and those are the days that I say im having a rough time. Mason has gotten one spanking and I still feel bad about to this day I know it was out of anger. Right after it happened I felt like "oh no im opening the door that its going to lead to abuse" Im sorry I just think of all the what ifs because of how I was raised. I explained this to my husband who is pro spanking and said "lily only cause you spank him does not mean your going to beat him" I told him that I rather just not go there. He laughs because of how my brain works I think it confuses him at times

I picked up "The Strong-Willed Child" by Dr. James Dobson. I got to about page 47 and decided it was not the book for me. From what I got from it it should be the first resort instead of the last. I just kept thinking the whole time how this book gives me the excuse to spank and why I should. That is just not my parenting style so it did not sit well with me. Maybe I should have read it with a open mind and finished reading it because it could have had other helpful tips. So feel kinda guilty for not reading to the end. Im just stubborn and like my AP ways and why I like Dr Sears books.

I definitely recommend this book to EVERYONE whatever your discipline ways are I think it has tips for everyone

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Im not going to lie I miss being in Hawaii for Easter SONrise service at the beach cant beat that. It has a special place in my heart because thats where a good friend of mine, Leza and I took our leap of faith. It was an amazing experience. God has done so much for me in my life especially with my attitude. Even with my husband deployed I feel at peace with the situation that im in. I told my husband a couple of days before Easter about how excited I was and he did not really understand. I told him that to me its amazing how God gave us His only son to die for our sins and give us the opportunity to be with him one day. Can you imagine giving up your son because I dont know if I would be able to. Not only did he die for us but conquered death!!!! AMAZING

This was the first year Mason got to do an easter egg hunt and he got a bsket full og goodies. Our good friends Ronnie and Kandie invited us Saturday to their house. We dont get to see them much because we dont live in the same town but it was good to hang out with them. The best part of our visit was seeing little Ben, he has grown up so fast already!. Mason played so well with everyone and he got the concept of picking the eggs and putting them in his basket.

Sunday after church we had a cook out at my house (well mom and dads house but thats where im staying). Some of my family was over and I hid 250 eggs for the kids to find. They had a lot of fun some of them even found "special" eggs.

I also had cascarones (eggs with confetti inside of them) that we smashed on top of everyones head. Even the grown ups got into it. The first one to get hit was my mom.

Monday morning I had to empty all the eggs and hide the candy because I found Mason quietly opening them and eating jelly beans in his room.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Well we are almost at the halfway point. In about 20 days or so will mark the half way point for this dreadful deployment. This has been the biggest learning experience of my life. My patience is being stretched real thin with all the drama that certain people produce. But in the other hand I have gained a lot of experience and knowledge. For the last couple of months I have been away from my unit shutting down a warehouse at a another FOB. It has been my sole responsibility to shut it down with the help of a very knowledgeable Chief. She has helped a lot. But now that my mission is done I must return to the dreadful place that is knows as Tallil. I also just completed a college course which I did pretty good in and plan on taking more classes. Matter of fact I start another one on April 5Th. But once again the best time of the year is upon us, Baseball season!!lol. Let's go Red Sox and Yankees are bums. I had to get that in there for Jeff. I just hope that the next six months fly by so I can be with Lily and Mason.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

I copied the letters to a word document and adjusted the color so the background would be clear and I could see the letters

I traced them with a sharpie just to make it easy for me to see where I was cutting

I traced the letters to the back of the sandpaper(fine grain $3-$4 at home depo) wrong side so when you cut the letters are facing the right way. I used about 3 1/2 sheets of sandpaper.

I cut each letter out and letters that had inner cuts I used a ezacto knife.

I went to Home Depo and bought some wood. I read other blogs and they used balsa wood. I dont have a clue about wood so I found something that was the thickness I was looking for and I ask a employee to show me what my choices where. The wood I bought was plywood for $5.47. I had my dad cut them into 5x6 rectangles. From the pice of wood he was bale to get 28 rectangles. Then my brother suggested to prime them so he did that for me.

I bought some craft paint at the store for about $2 each I used red and blue(vowels). My brother suggested I buy sample paint from the paint store but when I checked the prices the little cans cost $5 each

Then I got some rubber cement for about $2 and I glued the letters to the wood. I found the basket at Salvation army for .49 cents.